More Blakely Harbor, day 7

What better comment on floating mid-harbor than the mad laughter of a loon? Is it nutty to be swimming around Bainbridge Island on a cold Puget Sound November? Day 7 had a number of firsts, and here's a first that makes my swim look sedate by comparison.

Today I had my first guest swimmer, my mother in law from Montana, Jill Fanning. You won't believe this (see photo), I walked into the water entirely covered in neoprene rubber and she had nothing but a bathing suit. She's 70 years old and she routinely takes refreshing dips in Puget Sound. It's a cleansing experience for her.


Getting in (left) and Jill hitching a ride out to sea (right) in the water that's feeling cold to me even in my drysuit.

She did get out of the water fairly quickly, leaving me to swim out across Blakely Harbor a quarter mile to my starting point on the far shore. Once I turned west along the south shore of Blakely Harbor, I encountered a light current working against me. Strangely, I was against the current all day, swimming into the harbor along the south shore and then out of the harbor along the north shore. The tide must be spinning a circular pattern, taunting me.

air temp: 50F
water temp: 52F
Nov. 18, 12:30pm cloudy
wind from the north, light
medium tide, falling
visibility 5-15 feet
today's distance: 1.09 mile
total so far: 6.35 miles

today's notables:
common loon
oysters
bufflehead

Once again the darkness of the Blakely Harbor south shore, under the trees shaded by hills. With a black mud and sand bottom, not a lot to see. The rains have brought some fine debris into the water, further clouding sight.

I'm moving towards an interesting place, the old Port Blakely millsite. This entire harbor was once a bustling town, now gone sleepy. According to Picture Bainbridge from the Bainbridge Island Historical Society, the Port Blakely mill was known as the largest lumber mill in the world in the 1890s. It ran night and day and employed over 1000 men. The harbor was busy with mill business and a shipyard. Reports say Port Blakely had electricity before the less notable town of Seattle, visible just across the water.

President Rutherford B. Hayes visited the mill and the town of Port Blakely in 1891, and press coverage conveyed the feel of the town:

Port Blakely, the site of the world renowned Port Blakely Mill, is one of the busiest and most thriving towns on the Pacific Coast, and the throb of the ponderous machinery is manifest both day and night. The noise of the whirring wheels, the heavy pulsations of the many engines and the incessant hum of the saws and the planers impress a person...

Now all is ruin, at least these works of men. The deep harbor remains, a few pilings and the concrete bunker that once housed the steam engine that ran the mill. Port Blakely and Blakely Harbor experience nothing more sharp than the call of a loon on a grey day.



north shore of Blakely Harbor, photo credit Islandwood

And we're not even done. Entering the millsite I come to a wall in the harbor with a small inlet to the head of the harbor. It's visible in the map below at the far left end of the harbor. Swimming through the entrance, there's the expected profusion of life where the swift current runs in and out with the tides. Then into the black enclosed harbor to find a small flock of nervous buffleheads.

I have a mind to swim up to the creek mouth, there are few estuaries of note on Bainbridge and this is one. Islandwood, located just upstream, is promoting salmon restoratoin and I'd like to see one. Islandwood is a local institution with outdoor education programs among much more. I float at the creek mouth, hoping beyond hope to scare up an adult coho or chum salmon waiting to motor up the creek and spawn. No such luck, but I count myself as having seen a salmon in my mind's eye. Someday I'll see that here.

Coming out of the millsite and headed towards the harbor mouth, I find oysters galore on the north shore of the harbor. Among the mill ruins and further out, oysters and oysters. One of my favorite ocean animals.

I have to swim out around a floating dock, past my parking place at the Port Blakely park and beyond. Finally, as I'm starting to look for an exit I hear a faint voice. "Where did you come from?" Looking up, there's a friendly woman on the shore above me. I said around the harbor. She didn't see where I came from, then I was just there, surprising her. I ask if I may get out at her house and she is pleased to say yes. My first friendly resident, inviting me to traverse her yard. We talk very briefly, and then I walk on, heading for the car and back to work. A nice lunch break of barely over an hour.

I found the underwater path to somewhere else today, that plunging into the water that carries me far away. It was a good swim.


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Next, around a point and back to the more exposed shoreline.

Day 7: Blakely Harbor

Out in the middle of Blakely Harbor I heard someone laughing at me. It was a loon, about 100 feet away. I paused in the greenish brown murk, feeling the cold, and paddled quietly to about 50 feet before it dove underwater. I had a moment to feel the strangeness of floating in the middle of nowhere before plunging ahead.

Cloudy, dark, cool, grey water like a mirror. Very Puget Sound.

1.09 mile today, plus 0.23 mile "starting" swim across the open water of Blakely Harbor to get from my parking place to my starting point.

I had an interesting tour around about half of Blakely Harbor, including the old Port Blakely mill site, once a thriving metropolis but now totally abandoned and a park. Also an excursion up to a creek mouth.

Visibility was only 5-10 feet with a lot of fine debris, but the oyster beds were fantastic! More later, including my first guest swimmer. You won't believe the story.

Next swim, out of Blakely Harbor and around the horn to Rockaway Beach.


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Day 5: Restoration Point

Big swim today, I want to get all the way around Restoration Point, to get past the Country Club and the signs warning me away. At least they don't own the water and a person can swim by, but it'll take at least a mile to get past the private land.


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blue markers show entry and exit points, click for notes

There's some wild water here, as my wife calls it. Around the point there is what passes for swells in Puget Sound, and a more exposed feeling. Also a buoy where sea lions haul out and rest. Not exactly open ocean, but then I probably wouldn't be swimming 53 miles in the open ocean.

Nice Seattle view, the picture at right is looking east past the Country Club dock to Seattle, with a telephoto to bring Seattle closer.

I have some time today, a chance to swim as far as I want. We'll see how far that is.
The picture at left is a view looking north towards the entrance to Puget Sound.

Air temp: 55F
Water temp: 52F
Nov. 9, 11am, cloudy
wind from the SE at 5mph
medium tide, rising
visibility 5-25 feet
Today's distance: 1.44 mile
Total so far: 4.33 miles

Today's creatures of note:
dungeness crabs (big)
giant barnacle (fields of these big guys)
snails
surfperch
And I found some of my favorite creatures today, OYSTERS! I brought home my first souveniers, two oyster shells. Well, 3 really but two are fused together. An introduced species from Japan, and very good to eat raw!!


I drive out Country Club Road, turn off Upper Farms, and park where it turns into Bean's Bight Road. Narrow, fairly private, not many places to park. I find a spot near a big garage, and quickly sneak through an open spot onto the golf course and skulk down towards the water.

To make these quick entries I put on my drysuit at home, slip on my booties as I get out of the car and just grab my mask, fins, snorkel, hood and gloves and trot down to the water. Then, I get partway in before stopping to put on the rest of my gear. I figure I'll just plunge in if anyone challenges me, and see if they bother coming in after me to give me a hard time. I've already pictured sitting there in the water getting yelled at, then waving and swimming away. Is this picture my imagination, or will I actually make entries like that?

Will it be easier or harder if people start paying attention to me? I might get some encouragement. But another possibility is that I might get people watching out for me and trying to send me away because they don't like what I'm doing.

I was worried about the golf course entry, but it doesn't matter, I'm in cleanly and swimming out towards Restoration Point.

The bottom is fairly typical of what I've seen so far, sandy patches mixed with bedrock and gravel. The bedrock tends to stick up here, instead of being flat shelves. Instead, it rises up in the form of rocky ribs between patches of gravel or sand. A bit of eelgrass and geoduck flats, and then the bottom gets rockier as I approach the point.

Restoration Point was named by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy when he anchored here in 1792, after the English Restoration which restored the monarchy in the late 1600s. So my swim relates to King Charles II of England. Huh.

Right off the point, in open Puget Sound, two sea lions are sitting on the red buoy. On the bottom at the point, there are big patches of shell debris, broken shells from barnacles, clams and oysters. It's worth exploring a bit, even though I don't want to get too close to the sea lions. I've been yelled at and harassed by a sea lion years ago, and I don't want to repeat that experience.

On the north side of the point, the bottom drops off a bit more steeply in some places and there's more vertical relief. I'll be swimming in 4 feet of water and see the bottom drop away to 15 feet. This is different, off Fort Ward and South Beach the bottom was fairly flat.

I swim under the Country Club dock, which is about a mile from today's entry, I think. A little further on, I get a few lucky sparkles of sunshine and some beautiful underwater coves that are little sandy patches surrounded by rock walls. One of these is fabulous, with calm, clear water maybe 20 feet deep, bright white sand, and great visibility. I can see the bottom clearly. Enjoying the view, I swim slowly along and feel like I really don't want to get out. I'm a little tired and my hands and feet are a bit cold so I decide to pull out on a convenient rock.

From here, I'll enter Blakely Harbor with my next swim. The harbor is to the left in the picture which is northwest. The kitchen sink in the photo is sitting on today's exit rock.

After a little scramble up the shore I find myself right at the intersection of Country Club Rd and Upper Farms, probably only a half mile from my car. A mile and a half swim could turn into a long walk, so I'm happy to have this nice cross peninsula road that isn't even private.

When I get back to my car, a dog comes out and I worry that I'm found out. A minute later, a man on a bike comes out of the same sneak I used to get down to the water through the golf course. He says hi and is perfectly nice. This is my first encounter at a sneaky entry point, and he doesn't care. It's a nice end to a great swim.